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Past Film/Video | Documentaries
$7 members and adults 55 and over$9 general public$5 students
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Enjoy snacks with your movieHeirloom Café reopens at 6 PM until the July 28 screening begins, now serving gourmet popcorn plus beer, wine, and other refreshments. You can also find packaged snacks in the Wexner Center Store. Read the press release.
ACCESSIBILITY We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation such as CART captioning or ASL interpretation to participate in this event, please contact Accessibility Manager Helyn Marshall at accessibility@wexarts.org or via telephone at (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of "Midnight Cowboy" chronicles the lives of the talented but often troubled people behind the classic but controversial 1969 film.
Featuring extensive archival material and compelling new interviews, Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City illuminates how Midnight Cowboy captured the essence of New York City at a specific time, reflecting a rapidly changing society with striking clarity. Instead of a typical making-of documentary, Desperate Souls documents the lives of the people who made this difficult masterpiece. (101 mins., DCP)
More than 50 years after its release, Midnight Cowboy—which screens here for free on July 29—remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era. With memorable performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two outsiders who are brought together out of desperation and John Schlesinger’s fearless direction, the film became the only X-rated film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture (the rating then simply meant a film was intended for adults only before being coopted by the pornography industry). Its vivid depiction of a more realistic, unvarnished New York City and its inhabitants was influential for a generation’s worth of gritty movies about the city.
Both screenings of the documentary begin with Cleveland filmmaker Bruce Checefsky’s Andy Warhol Films Jack Smith Filming "Normal Love," a recreation of Warhol’s lost film that disappeared after it was seized by police following a screening in 1964. (5:43 mins., DCP)
IMAGE CAPTION Desperate Souls, Dark City, courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.
SUPPORT FOR FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS PROVIDED BY Rohauer Collection Foundation
WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BYGreater Columbus Arts CouncilThe Wexner FamilyNational Endowment for the ArtsOhio Arts CouncilL Brands FoundationThe Columbus FoundationOhio State's Global Arts + Humanities Discovery ThemeNationwide FoundationInstitute of Museum and Library ServicesVorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BYMike and Paige CraneAxium PackagingCampusParcJeni’s Splendid Ice CreamsPresident Kristina M. Johnson and Mrs. Veronica MeinhardNancy KramerOhio State Energy PartnersOhio History Fund/Ohio History ConnectionLarry and Donna JamesLisa BartonJohanna DeStefanoJones DayAlex and Renée Shumate
Past Film/Video
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of "Midnight Cowboy"